I really regret having chartered it.
I put a lot of money, time, and work into my little library. I really love reading, learning, books, and sharing these things with others. So I thought registering my library with the little free library organization was a good idea.
It wasn’t.
I work to have a good mix of values and cultures represented in my little library. For me, this includes some religious texts (not pamphlets, but different scripture and official texts are welcome), as true diversity doesn’t disparage them, either.
The LFL organization, however, doesn’t believe this way.
One of the ‘perks’ of chartering your library is being able to join the closed little free library stewards Facebook group, so I did. Lots of welcomes, a few good tips, but I started to notice a trend of hate towards religious literature being left in libraries. Those posts were frequent, and had all been allowed through by the moderators. Some of the posts were quite annoyed, even angry, and some of the comments on those posts were derisive and mocking of various religions. All allowed by moderators.
I created a gentle post to remind stewards that, while it’s perfectly good that they are allowed and encouraged to keep only the books they want in their libraries, there are stewards that happen to hold some of the beliefs being derided, and asking them to please be kind in their comments. It was rejected by the moderators, claiming it was ‘divisive.’
Hate (of ‘hateable’ groups) is allowed by their moderators. Requesting kindness is not.
I will continue to steward and take care of my library, because my love of the service and box has nothing to do with the organization. The charter gave me no real benefits, so if I disavow my association with the organization, it will not hurt me. But my personal opinion and advice if you want to put up a similar public service station yourself, is to skip the charter. It’s really not worth it.